Chapterbreak Challenge: Relationships
by Windfighter
Summary: Emil reflects a little on his relationship with the rest of the crew
1. Friendship

Emil kept an eye on Lalli, watched as the other sniffed the food Emil had given him. Emil didn't know why he was drawn to the Finn, why the Finn had suddenly gotten him interested in learning a new language. Sure, he didn't do much progress, but he was _trying_ at least. There was just something...

He had felt it already the first time they met, when Lalli just walked past him. Like... Like he didn't need to pretend to be something in front of the other. Lalli wouldn't care anyway. It didn't keep him from trying to keep his appearance up, but it was nice knowing he was accepted... No, not really accepted. Lalli simply Did. Not. Care. And it was nice.

Emil on the other hand cared maybe a little too much. He pulled his fingers through his hair when he felt the Finn staring back at him and quickly looked in another direction. Lalli went back to the food in his hands, and Emil looked at the bowl in his own hands, his mind still occupied with the Finn, tried to figure out what the deal between the two of them actually was.

He couldn't claim to _understand_ the Finn, understanding him was hard. Somehow he just _knew_ how to handle him. The Finn brought out his need to protect someone, to protect Lalli. A little like how it was with his cousins, like they needed someone to care for them, to look after their needs.

Except, it wasn't like that. He glanced at the slender man beside him again. Lalli didn't exactly seek him out like his cousins did, and he didn't really demand Emil's attention, at least not in obvious ways. The Finn was just content with his company. Emil leaned back, smiled. Maybe there wasn't actually anything to try and figure out.

Maybe friendship simply worked like that.


	2. Mentorship

"Come on now, hurry up!"

Sigrun's voice made Emil try to hurry his steps, but instead he slipped on the hood of the 90-year old car. A hand came into his view and Sigrun smiled at him. Emil gladly accepted the help and Sigrun pulled him onto the hood before hurrying ahead again. Emil's eyes followed her a couple seconds before his legs started moving as well.

He would like to think of her as his mentor, but that wasn't entirely correct. She was his superior and she behaved like it. Emil didn't always _like_ her orders, but the air around her screamed that she was a person you followed, a person you didn't try to lead. And Emil... He just wanted to impress her. He wanted to show that he was good enough to be lead by her.

"We ain't got all day, Emil!"

Emil looked up, noticed how far ahead she had gotten and hurried his steps. She hit his back when he caught up and then started walking again. Emil smiled, tried to keep up with her brisk pace.

In the end, when it came to Sigrun, he didn't actually _need_ to prove himself. Both of them knew he didn't have enough experience to make a very good hunter, but she still trusted him to have her back.

And he trusted her to have his.

Emil didn't have a word to describe his relationship to his Captain. It wasn't friendship and it wasn't quite mentorship. It wasn't even that between a superior and those below.

In the end, it was a Sigrunship.


	3. Enemyship

The icelander. Reynir. Emil didn't like him. Emil's first impression of Reynir was fear. No wonder, who would expect finding a person in what was supposed to be a crate of food? Then Sigrun ordered him to keep a close eye on him. Which he did. You do _not_ disobey the Sigrun.

" _He's still not our prisoner."_

Emil had made a mortal enemy right then and there. He looked at Reynir, who was currently chatting away with Tuuri in Icelandic. They were probably talking about him, about how stupid he was. No, Emil _did not_ like Reynir. But the mortal enemy-part wasn't the only reason for that.

He threw a glance in Lalli's direction and noticed how his friend kept a close eye on the Icelander, ready to leave if the other would turn in his direction. Emil smiled. _That_ was the reason he didn't like the Icelander. Reynir behaved way to familiar with Emil's best friend and not in a way that said friend even _liked._ For now it had only been short interctions, and they had ended as quick as they begun, but every time Emil saw it happening he was ready to leap to Lalli's defense.

He still wanted the icelander to like him though, it was in his blood. He wanted people to like him. Emil pulled a hand through his hair, making the air around him sparkle and Reynir looked in his direction, said something to Tuuri. Tuuri only smiled and continued the conversation after throwing a glance at Emil. Emil let out a sigh. There they went talking about him again. If only he could understand them. Why couldn't everyone just learn Swedish?

Well, fine. Emil got up and went inside the tank. If the icelander wanted to be his mortal enemy, so be it. He pulled his fingers through his hair again, grabbed his belt with explosives and tied it around his waist. He would take care of his mortal enemy one day, but for the moment it was time to get looting.


	4. Brotherhood

"Mikkel? No, I don't really like him."

"Aww, you're breaking my little shipper-heart."

"I thought you shipped me with Lalli."

"I can ship you with more than one person."

Silence fell between the two people on the balcony and they looked at the stars that was slowly coming out as the sun went down. The young man, Emil Västerström, had shining blonde hair, blue eyes and was a bit on the chubby side, but not as much as he had once been. He was dressed in a black shirt with white arms, white pants and black socks. Beside him was a woman with short, curly black hair and brown eyes. She was chubby, dressed in a lace-ridden shirt and a black, wide skirt. Her name was Sofia Magdalena Linnea Wilhelmina and she was very stern about people using her full name. It got the word-count up.

Sofia Magdalena Linnea Wilhelmina leaned back in the blue chair she was sitting in, placed her hands behind her head and glanced in Emil's direction.

"Why don't you like him?"

He reached out to whack her in the back of her head, a gesture he knew he would be punished for later because she was _The Author_. It did however give him a small feeling of satisfaction.

"You already know that."

"Well, our readers need to know as well."

"...Are you writing this conversation down?"

"...mmmmmaybe?"

Emil let out a sigh.

"Always _The Author_ , right?"

She nodded, leaned forward, changed her mind and leaned back again. Her eyes danced between Emil and the stars in the sky, and Emil's eyes focused on the net that kept him from jumping from the balcony to escape her.

"Well, to start with he's a _Dane_."

The woman nodded, agreeing whole-heartedly with his statement. Danes could not be trusted. They couldn't even talk. He hit her head again.

"You're such a Swede."

"As are you."

They smiled stupidly for a while, before Emil continued.

"I guess it boils down to the stupid joke he pulled on me. It wasn't funny."

"I thought it was."

Emil glared at Sofia Magdalena Linnea Wilhelmina, but she didn't notice it, so he gave up and leaned back, looked at the dying plants infront of him while thinking about the older man.

He called it not liking the Dane, but it was a bit more complex than that. He both trusted and distrusted Mikkel, he wanted to somehow... prove himself to the other man. Not like with Sigrun, he didn't need to prove that he was a good warrior to Mikkel, he just wanted the Dane to find him... not stupid.

"Maybe if you started reading more", Sofia Magdalena Linnea Wilhelmina cut in.

"Maybe if you stopped reading people's thoughts."

"Maybe if you stopped thinking."

They continued teasing each other for a while, then silence fell again. Emil let out a sigh.

"I do not _not_ like him. But I also don't _like_ him. You know?"

She nodded. Emil wasn't sure if she actually did understand.

"I don't spend a lot of time with him, so I can't really make a statement. It's like... He's just there, making sure we have clean clothes and food and I dunno."

"So you'd say he's your servant?"

"What? NO! I didn't say that!"

"More like a parent then? Your dad perhaps."

"My father is an honorable man, and Mikkel is not. Mikkel is just aggravating and stoic and someone you can trust, but you don't want to trust and..."

"He's your big brother."

"He's not!"

"He totally is! You have adopted him as your big brother! Aww, that's just so cute!"

Emil fell silent again, once again looked at the stars. Maybe _The Author_ was correct, maybe he actually had somehow adopted Mikkel as a big brother. He stuck his tongue out towards her.

"Well, I still don't like him."


	5. Friendship 2

Emil leaned against the doorframe, watched as Reynir and Tuuri excitedly looked at something from their latest haul of books. Tuuri's forehead fluff was bobbing funnily as she browsed through the books, comparing notes and talking to Reynir. Emil enjoyed watching her work, even though he wasn't entirely sure what she was doing. He had tried asking, but there had been lots of big words and after a while she got too excited and started talking Finnish. While he had managed to learn a couple words in the foreign language it was far from enough to understand her rabbling. Tuuri looked at him, smiled.

"Did you want to help as well?" she asked.

Emil shook his head, laughed.

"You're doing such a good job, I wouldn't want to interrupt."

"No worries, come here now!"

Emil shook his head, but came up to her, looked over her shoulder.

"See this thing here?"

"Uh, yeah."

The thing was a diagram with lots of numbers and words in a language he had never seen before. Tuuri lifted some papers to find another book to show him. Her eyes was shining and Emil looked at her instead of what she wanted to show him. He really enjoyed seeing her like this, it was a heavy contrast to when she was being ordered around by Sigrun or trying to talk to Lalli or even when she was translating between the crewmembers. She looked a lot more alive when she got to work with the books.

"You don't have many books in Finland, do you?"

"Well, there's some... We're more worried about trolls and beasts than books though."

"You really like books, don't you?"

Tuuri blushed a little.

"You said you're a brainiac, don't you feel excited?"

Her voice lost some of the excitement, but gained something of that other tone that Emil still hadn't managed to understand. He forced a smile.

"Of course I do. Very interesting."

Tuuri was... complex. Emil was usually pretty good at figuring people out, at least that's what he wanted to believe, but he just couldn't figure her out. She laughed and started talking about what they were looking for. Emil didn't understand half of it, but he still found it nice to listen to her. He backed away and leaned against the doorframe again. Mikkel and Sigrun was outside, Kissekatt and Lalli was sleeping in the bedroom, so Emil found himself in the study with Reynir and Tuuri. He didn't help much, but the two of them didn't seem to mind, both too busy with what they were doing.

Lalli came out after an hour, sank down in the chair next to the door. Emil lifted a hand to greet him, but kept his eyes on Tuuri. He enjoyed hanging around her, she was nice to talk to, he could understand what she was saying and she didn't seem to hate him. He would call her a friend, but their friendship was so much different from another friendship he had found since he met the Finns. Emil glanced at Lalli, noticed the slender man looking at him and averted his gaze again.

One could never have too many friends.


	6. Kittyship

"Mao!"

Emil watched as Kitty ran between Reynir and Lalli while they were waiting for dinner. Reynir tried to play with the cat, Kitty tried to play with Lalli, and Lalli was just in a sour mood and hissed at her when she came too close. Emil pulled out a string he had hidden in his pocket a few days earlier. A scrunched up paper was tied to one end of the string and he held it infront of himself, called for Kitty.

"Ks ks ks."

Kitty stopped inbetween Reynir and Lalli, her ears moving to locate the sound.

"Ks ks ks."

She looked right at Emil, and Emil dangled the string. Kitty's eyes fixated on it, she crouched, her back raised again and she shook it a little, her tail wagging. Then she leaped at the paper, got her paws around it, pulled at it and then ran away again. Emil laughed, made some more ks-sounds, and kitty attacked the paper again, rolling on the ground between Emil's feet. He scratched her head and she purred before attacking the string again.

Reynir looked a bit jealous, Emil noted with satisfaction, but just as he noticed it Kitty ran back to Reynir.

"Maaaao."

Reynir petted her, scratched her head and she meowed again, a bit louder. Reynir laughed nervously, said something in Icelandic and looked around. Emil crossed his arms over her chest and glared at the farmer.

"She wants food."

Reynir lifted her, put her in his lap and patted her again. Kitty protested slightly, but Reynir assumed she was just playful. Emil let out a sigh and got up from the ground, looked towards Lalli before heafing inside to see if there was still some tuna.

Out of the whole crew he felt like he was the one who understood cats best.


End file.
